Location: home,
Equipment:
Mak EPs:
TV Plossl 32mm, 50 deg (84x, 2.2mm exit pupil, 0.59 deg TFV)
TV Delite 18.2mm. 60 deg (148x, 1.2mm exit pupil, 0.42 deg TFV)
TV Delite 15mm, 60 deg (180x, 1.0mm exit pupil, 0.34 deg TFV)
SV102ED/
Celestron X-Cel LX 25mm, 60 deg (54x, 1.9mm exit pupil, 1.1 deg TFV)
Pentax XF 8.5mm, 60 deg (160x, 0.6mm exit pupil, 0.4 deg TFV).
The sky did not cooperate during the Christmas break, but it did not take too long to get a clear window in January. The air was crisp (by SoCal standards
). The seeing was not great but has improved an hour into the session. 18:20. PLANETARY BINOVIEWING part 1
This time I have deployed Stellarvue 4” ED refractor alongside 7”
The image merged effortlessly, 16mm eye relief was good enough for comfortable observing with eyeglasses, and at 54x Jupiter and Saturn were smallish, but sharp. I have tried to step up the power, but the views were soft due to poor seeing. Still, at 160x using a pair of Pentax XF 8.5mm EPs I was able to resolve Cassini division in the rings and North Equatorial Belt on the Saturn globe.
19:00. TAURUS DOUBLES with
Splitting doubles require frequent changes of EPs and while I have tried it before with binoviewers I found it cumbersome. Another drawback is that at high powers and small exit pupil it takes an effort to merge
STF 383 (8.5, 9.1, 5.6”) – yellow, silver (84x).
SCJ 2 (9.0, 10.0, 17”) - yellow, silver (84x).
STF 393 (8.7, 11.4, 15.5”) – yellow, gray (148x).
A 2417 A,BC (8.7, 9.7, 72.8”) – yellow, white (84x).
STF 399 (8.3, 10.8, 12.1, ab19.9”, ac56.5”) – yellow, gray, gray (148x).
STF 404 (aka STF 405: 9.8, 11.4, 8.9, 12.0, ab29”, ac121.5”, cd26.8”). AC – wide pair of cream-colored stars, each of them having a faint grayish sidekick, B and D respectively (148x).
STF 414 (8.2, 8.3, 7.4”) – nice looking pair of white stars (84x).
STF 415 (8.8, 10.9, 15.3”) – yellow, silver (180x).
STF 416 (8.9, 10.6, 12.5, ab30.3”, ac23.9”) – orange main with two faint grayish companions. C resolved with averted vision (180x).
19:40 PLANETARY BINOVIEWING part 2
After splitting a few doubles, I decided to revisit Jupiter. The seeing has improved considerably and the view was excellent. Four main belts were well-resolved. Two equatorial belts were reddish-brown color and rich in details. Darker polar regions were easily seen, and North North Temperate Zone was distinguished from the North Polar Region by lighter shadowing, which I don’t see often.
Io transit was in progress, and I have joined in the right time to see Io sliding off the Jupiter body. Io shadow was a sharp black little disk on top of the brown South Equatorial Belt, roughly halfway across Jupiter.
Views in both Mak (at 148x) and refractor (at 160x) were great. Although, I preferred the view provided by the refractor with binoviewers. It had less glare and as a result colors and shades were easier to detect. It also had a 3D effect where Jupiter appeared as a glob vs flat disk appearance in the Mak mono setup.
20:14 ASTEROIDS with 7” Mak.
In the last segment of the evening, I have caught a few asteroids.
(108) Hecuba – mag 12.9 asteroid in Auriga (148x).
(353) Ruperto-Carola – mag 12.8 asteroid in Gemini (180x). This is the smallest asteroid I have ever observed. The fact that we can see a rock 14 km in diameter from 140,000,000 km away is mind-blowing!
(443) Photographica – mag 12.6 asteroid in Gemini (180x).
I have finished around 20:30 to have dinner and watch a movie with my wife. That was a good year starter!
